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Fundamental struggle of living Christian life is ‘battle of prayer’
Published: July 7, 2016
By Father Jerome Kodell, OSB
Subiaco Abbey
The title of one of the articles on prayer in the Catechism of the Catholic Church is disarming but also refreshing, and causes many of us to nod our heads in recognition: “The Battle of Prayer.” (nos. 2725-2745)
The battle of prayer is “against ourselves and against the wiles of the tempter,” the catechism states, and is fundamental to the struggle of living a Christian life.
The catechism identifies three general areas of struggle: erroneous notions about prayer; a bias in secular culture against the world of the spirit; and the discouragement we experience from daily difficulties and failures in our prayer.
Distractions are annoying, but by causing us to struggle may even purify our prayer. And as to whether distractions are a sign of an unspiritual attitude, Thomas Merton said memorably in “New Seeds of Contemplation,” “If you have never had any distractions, you don’t know how to pray.”
In the area of erroneous notions, the catechism mentions ideas of prayer as something “added on,” outside of real life, a separate occupation on a spectrum from ritual words and postures to an “effort of concentration to reach a mental void.”
It may be treated as an impersonal interaction rather than a personal relationship with God. Some people are discouraged “because they do not know that prayer comes also from the Holy Spirit and not from themselves alone.”
A secular mentality is the view that only what can be verified by reason and science is true, and believes that all causality is contained within the observable physical universe. What you see is what you get, and since the results of prayer are often untraceable or invisible, the value of prayer doesn’t register. It is a psychological need for some people, but the mature can get along without it.
What bothers most of us, however, is not these global issues but the personal daily struggle when we try to pray. Everyone experiences periods of dryness and being plagued by distractions. This can cause discouragement and self-blame. Why am I not more fervent?
We may judge that the presence of distractions nullifies our prayer. But prayer is primarily a decision of the will, and underneath the distractions we may be focused on God. The counsel that St. Augustine gave to the Christian widow Proba centuries ago can be reassuring to us today.
He told her that prayer is fundamentally the desire for God, not a vague yearning but a decision to live for God and eternal purpose. “If your desire is continuous, your prayer is continuous,” he said.
Distractions are annoying, but by causing us to struggle may even purify our prayer. And as to whether distractions are a sign of an unspiritual attitude, Thomas Merton said memorably in “New Seeds of Contemplation,” “If you have never had any distractions, you don’t know how to pray.”
When we begin to respond to God’s call to a closer union, our prayer is typically accompanied by feelings of deep peace and joy. As we progress in the spiritual journey, there comes a time when God weans us away from feelings.
We may think that God is distant or perhaps punishing us for some fault, but the seed must die to bear fruit. “This is the moment of sheer faith clinging faithfully to Jesus in his agony and in his tomb.”
Finally, we are alerted to the temptation of acedia, known popularly as the “noonday devil,” a spiritual weariness that makes difficult what used to be easy, and rocky what used to be smooth. This can be a precarious moment of temptation to abandon the spiritual quest. The way forward is a renewed commitment to “humility, trust and perseverance.”
